Pitch Us
Q Minnesota is looking for writers.
Q Minnesota is a new LGBTQ+ magazine and website for Minnesota, launching this October. We publish a monthly print magazine, an annual community directory, and a website built to be a year-round resource.
That only works if the pool of writers is as wide and deep as the community itself.
Two early concept covers for our debut issue, Issue 01, October 2026. Concept renderings — not final artwork.
What We're Commissioning
We publish across these sections.
- News
- Community & Pride
- Health & Wellness
- Food & Drink
- Home & Garden
- Nightlife & Events
- Arts & Entertainment
- Politics
- Nonprofits & Advocacy
- Love & Relationships
- LGBTQ+ Travel
- Parenting & Family
- Faith & Spirituality
- Style
- Sports & Recreation
We commission for both the website and the magazine.
The site publishes year-round and moves quickly: news, reviews, guides, anything with a clock on it.
The monthly magazine is planned further out and can take its time — features, profiles, photo essays, reporting that can sit and simmer; enjoyed as people get to it.
- Reported stories that require actual legwork: sourcing, records, showing up
- Profiles of people in this community who haven’t been profiled yet
- Service journalism, whether that’s the guide, the explainer, or the how-this-actually-works piece
- Essays and criticism with a clear point of view, clearly labeled as opinion
- Stories from outside the Twin Cities metro
What we won’t commission: guest posts, sponsored or ghost-written content presented as editorial, SEO link placements, press releases rewritten as articles, or anything submitted on behalf of a brand or agency. Sponsored content is sold through our sales team, labeled as sponsored, and is handled separately by editorial.
What We Pay
What a piece pays depends many factors. But this community deserves to be paid competitively for its time and talent. So we will. You’ll be paid within a month of publication.
How To Pitch
Send us a pitch, not a finished article, except for personal essays and visual work, where we’d rather see the piece itself. Reviews and criticism are assigned by our editors, not submitted as pitches.
Tell us:
- What the story is, in two or three sentences
- Why it matters to LGBTQ+ Minnesotans, and why now
- Who you’d talk to
- Why you’re the person to write it
- A writing sample — links or attachments
- The topic areas you’d most like to cover, so we know where to come back to you
Send us a writing sample. It doesn’t have to be published, and doesn’t have to be journalism: a newsletter, a blog, a zine, or a Substack post all work.
Who reads it: Andy Lien, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, reads pitches.
What happens after you send it: We read everything that comes in. We can’t promise to answer everything — we’re a small team, and some good pitches will go unanswered on volume alone. That isn’t a verdict on the work. If you haven’t heard from us in three weeks, take it as a pass and take the story elsewhere. You don’t owe us the wait.
If we’re interested, we’ll write back with questions, a length, a deadline, and what the piece pays.
A Few Things We Want You To Know
On your name and your safety. Not everyone can write under their own name, and that’s a real constraint in this community, not a preference. If publishing under your legal name would put your job, housing, immigration status, family situation, or physical safety at risk, tell us in your pitch. We’ll talk about it before anything publishes. We don’t out contributors, and we don’t out sources.
On video and social. Some of our work shows up on camera: short interviews, contributor spots, video for our social channels. If that’s something you’d enjoy, tell us; it’s a real part of how stories reach people. If it isn’t, or if being on camera isn’t safe for you, say no. It has no effect on whether we accept your pitch or what we pay you.
On accuracy. We would rather be second and right than first and wrong. Contested claims need more than one source. A press release or a social post is a claim to verify, not a fact to publish. Our full standards are in our Editorial Standards & Ethics and Corrections Policy.
On conflicts. Tell us up front about board seats, employers, close relationships, advocacy work, or anything else that connects you to what you’re writing about. Disclosure is routine here, not disqualifying. Undisclosed conflicts are the problem, not conflicts.
On rights. You keep the copyright to your work. What we’re buying is the right to publish it, in print and on the site, as part of Q Minnesota. If we want to use it again later, we’ll ask first.
On independence. Advertisers and sponsors don’t assign, review, edit, delay, or kill our stories. That protection extends to you.
On AI. We don’t publish AI-generated or AI-drafted writing. If a tool wrote it, rewrote it, or substantially reworded it, it can’t run under your byline. Using AI to transcribe an interview or search background is fine. Using it to draft, outline, or phrase your piece is not. Tell us if AI touched your process at all, and if you’re not sure whether something crosses the line, ask before you send it.
Pitch Q Minnesota
What happens to this. Andy reads every pitch. We use what you send us to evaluate the pitch, nothing else. We don’t share it, and we don’t use it for marketing.
Read our Privacy Policy.